Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent arrhythmia, the incidence of which increases with age. It is estimated that 8% of all people over the age of 80 experience this type of abnormal heart rhythm and AF accounts for one-third of hospital admissions for cardiac rhythm disturbances. Over 2.2 million people are believed to have AF in the Unites States alone. Fuster, et al Circulation 2006 114 (7): e257-354. Although atrial fibrillation is often asymptomatic it may cause palpitations or chest pain. Prolonged atrial fibrillation often results in the development of congestive heart failure and/or stroke. Heart failure develops as the heart attempts to compensate for the reduced cardiac efficiency while stroke may occur when thrombi form in the atria, pass into the blood stream and lodge in the brain. Pulmonary emboli may also develop in this manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,510 discloses alkylaminoalkyl derivatives of benzofuran, benzothiophene, indole and indolizine, processes for their preparation and compositions containing them. WO 2013/014480 discloses a process for manufacturing dronedarone comprising reduction of the compound of formula (II) to the compound of formula (I) as shown below:

WO 2012/127174 discloses a process involving a Fries rearrangement converting, for example, the compound of formula (8) to the compound of formula (9) followed by coupling of the compound of formula (9) and dibutylamino propyl chloride to afford the compound of formula (I).

European patent application EP2617718A1 discloses processes for preparing dronedarone comprising reacting the intermediate
where L is a leaving group with dibutylaminopropanol.
The above disclosures notwithstanding, there remains a need for alternate or improved processes for preparing dronedarone.